Page 40 of The Harbinger
What the…
Was this a dream? Had I done something in my sleep?
Did he take advantage?
My thighs didn’t ache aside from the normal muscle pain I’d felt from lack of nutrition. So why… I mentally assessed my body and rubbed my eyes, clearing them from sleep.
Sacha lay on his belly beside me, his head just below the pillow, his left arm tucked under it.
Scars lapped across his back in tight ropes from tattooed shoulders to the dimples above his rounded, partially covered butt.
On his right shoulder was a modern tattoo of a plague doctor in tattered black robes riding a white horse. The horse’s front hooves slashed into the air as it reared up on a pile of human skulls. The plague doctor’s bony hand waved around a ripped-out spine with a lantern attached at the end.
I grimaced at the sickening art etched into his skin forever, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to look away. On his outer forearm was a screaming skull with hollowed-out black eyes. Decaying fingers slipped inside the mouth and eye sockets, pulling the skull apart in a game of tug-of-war.
Squinting, I moved closer with morbid curiosity and traced the symbol on the skull’s forehead with a light touch. A line down which bled into an infinity symbol. I picked up my finger and moved over the two horizontal lines at the top. This was the same image as the flight attendant and the caretaker. But theirs had been on the inside of their wrists… in the same area.
What did that mean? And why was it so popular with them?
Sacha stirred, tucking the arm I’d touched beneath the pillow as I pulled back and clutched the sheet tighter over my bare breasts like an invincible shield.
Was I in his room?
My head swiveled as I took in the familiar area. The walls were the color of pale lemon meringue, and the sheer curtains hung over the tall windows overlooking the forest.No.This was the same room.A sigh deflated my chest, and my heart settled. I laid my head back on my pillow, my energy waning.
Sacha stirred, turning his face in my direction. I rolled to my back and stared up at the ceiling with a yellow-rimmed circle in the center and a fan hanging below it. My stomach growled as I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes, meeting his sleepy dark brown ones. I jerked my gaze back to the cannula lights on the ceiling, the sheet not tight enough to conceal my nakedness or his.
“How do you feel?”
His deep, sultry, lightly accented voice ground out the morning shock, sending butterflies into my belly where they didn’t belong.
“I…” My heart raced a million miles a second, causing my speech to stumble. “I need to use the restroom.”
Sacha rose on his elbows, hanging his head between the gap with a grunt, then turned onto his back, adjusting the sheet around his hips. “Then go.”
“But I’m naked,” I whispered, my cheeks heating as I imagined exposing myself again.
“You’ve been naked for seven days.”
Sacha tucked his hand behind his head and closed his eyes.
Seven days?
I pressed my hand to my swirling stomach.
I’ve lost even more time?
A deep undercurrent of sadness coursed through me, and in return for my weakness, a tear slipped down my cheek when I rolled off the bed. I wrapped my arms around my chest, my bare ass exposed if he were to watch, and made my way into the bathroom as fast as possible.
When I stood at the bathroom door with floral-scented damp hands, my chest heaved as though I’d run a marathon.
“You’re going to feel weak. It’s normal.”
I leaned against the door frame, slightly hunched over as I caught my breath, my forearms still covering my chest. “How bad was it?”
“Bad.” Sacha sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, and ran a hand through his hair on top. “You didn’t say anything about the other drugs you’d taken.”
“I didn’t take anything else.” I shook my head. “I couldn’t afford it.”I couldn’t even afford the cocaine I used to dull the constant pain.